At Lowell High, a dialogue on race and respect (VIDEO)

In wake of texting incident, students see progress -- and work still to be done

People still say racial stuff to other people as jokes, said Channymol Kum, 16, also a Lowell High School sophomore. (SUN / AMARIS CASTILLO)

LOWELL -- In October 2015, Anye Nkimbeng was the target of racist texts that went public shortly after he was named senior class president of Lowell High School. Texts including "F** black people" and "Rule out blacks and #MakeLHSgreatagain" led to the suspension of six students. There was also a rumor that one of the students involved was going to lynch Nkimbeng and, when confronted, the student said he was joking, according to the former class president.

More than a year after the incident shook the school and city, officials report a series of actions and initiatives they hope will prevent that from happening again at Lowell High.

Students interviewed by The Sun have varied opinions on whether the school's racial climate has actually changed.

Tyrese Ferreras, an LHS sophomore, says there has not been a very noticeable change in the school since Anye Nkimbeng was targeted in 2015. (SUN / AMARIS CASTILLO)

Nkimbeng, who graduated last June, was not immediately available for comment.

Headmaster Brian Martin said he thinks the most important initiative that arose from the 2015 incident was the creation of the standing Cultural Competency Task Force, a group run by students with faculty support.

"They meet monthly and actually they're starting to meet twice a month now so that there's always an opportunity on student voice on issues," he said. "I think that was initially the best initiative along with many others."

He said the task force, consisting of about 12 students and five faculty members, made staff more aware of listening and understanding student concerns and cultures.

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School officials also had Lowell High teaching staff undergo a cultural competency workshop through the Lowell Community Health Center. It focused on awareness, the definition and importance of cultural competency, and how staff members engage in discussions and incorporate cultural competency into their work.

"I think you need to start with the staff of understanding and being trained in the awareness of cultural competency as they go through their workday and work with students so I think that was an important part," Martin said.

Megan Lopes, 18, left, and Caitlin Sousa, 17, reflect on the climate in Lowell High School since the 2015 incident in which a racist text conversation went public. Lopes brought up the Cultural Competency Task Force formed after the incident.
(SUN / AMARIS CASTILLO)

"People don't typically have cultural competency training going through preparation to teach. They have courses, but there aren't specific workshops for the most part and if you are in a culturally diverse school like Lowell High School -- with 64 countries and 48 or 50 languages that are spoken -- it's an, I think, an important part of training for staff to understand the cultures."

One of the issues raised after the incident was the glaring lack of diversity of teachers -- the faces students see everyday in their classrooms. Martin said the school has been working with the Superintendent's Office on recruitment efforts.

"I wouldn't think that people like our age would still do that, knowing like past stuff that happened in history," said Lowell High sophomore Channymol Kum.

Yaimarili Marin Avelino, a 16-year-old junior, says there has been a clear change in the school s climate. I think now we re talking more about race, she said. Now we re trying to make it so everybody feels more comfortable and feels more unity." (SUN / AMARIS CASTILLO)

"I felt like it was really wrong because you shouldn't say stuff about other people just because of color."

Kum, who is of Cambodian descent, said students at school still make offensive racial comments to others.

"Sometimes they make fun of people for having an accent, like when they speak," she added. "During class one time, there was a student in my class giving a presentation and these other kids were laughing at him because he kept messing up on his pronunciation."

Tyrese Ferreras, also a sophomore, agreed that there has not been a very noticeable change in the school since Nkimbeng was targeted. However, he said, he has not witnessed as much name calling or discrimination lately.

For others like Yaimarili Marin Avelino, a 16-year-old junior, there has been a clear change in the school's climate.

"I think now we're talking more about race," she said. "Now we're trying to make it so everybody feels more comfortable and feels more unity."

Avelino said English classes touch on race-related subjects more. She noted "Defamation," a play by Todd Logan that touches on race, religion, and class, which was performed last fall for the junior class of about 700 students.

"It was a really well-received play so we were delighted to do that," Martin said.

Avelino said she was surprised after the gossip surrounding the racist text messages made its rounds through school.

She said while at school, she has never been targeted because of her Puerto Rican background.

"Lowell High is really diverse," she said, "so to hear that somebody sent something like that was pretty shocking."

Lily Prum, a 17-year-old junior at the school, agreed that the school community seems more respectful of one another. Her friend, Kristie Stead, 17, said the Black Unity Club made an effort to stop the use of the derogatory "N" word. Stead said she knows Nkimbeng, who she said played a big role for the present senior class.

"He was just friendly with everybody and it was really appalling that that happened," she said.

As they waited to cross Arcand Drive on a recent Wednesday, friends Caitlin Sousa, 17, Mony Muth, 17, Megan Lopes, 18, and another friend reflected on the past year or so. Lopes brought up the Cultural Competency Task Force formed after the incident.

"I don't know much about it, but I know it was one of the things in response (to the incident) because I know the headmaster wouldn't stand for it," she said.

Freshman Tye Keo, 14, and Kobe Heap, 15, weren't students yet at Lowell High when the racially charged group text bubbled to the surface and spread, but they did hear about it.

Heap admitted being a bit worried before starting at Lowell High but said he has seen a lot of respect between students.

"I don't see anything racist. Every time I walk around, there's always people hanging around," said Keo, who is Khmer and white. "There's not really people discriminating. I have all different kinds of friends, I don't just hang out with a certain race. I have Puerto Rican friends, Cuban friends, Asian friends, everything."

According to the state enrollment data for the 2016-2017 school year, Asian students make up the bulk of the Lowell High student population, representing 32 percent of the students. White students make up 30.8 percent of the population, Hispanic students make up 23.8 percent and African Americans make up 11.3 percent. Multi-race, non-Hispanic students make up just 1.9 percent and Native American students make up less than 1 percent of the population.

According to state figures from the 2015-2016 school year, 90 percent of school staff in Lowell are white. Hispanic staff make up 5.1 percent, Asian staff make up 2.9 percent and African American staff make up 1.5 percent in the district. Native American, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and multi-race, non-Hispanic staff collectively make up 0.5 percent of the district.

"It's really clear that our staff does not reflect our student body in terms of diversity, in terms of ethnic or racial makeup," said Anne Sheehy, the district's Human Resources director.

Mayor Edward Kennedy said the School Committee put $30,000 in the current budget specifically intended to be spent on outreach efforts to create a more diverse teaching staff at Lowell High. Kennedy said once he sees the report seeing what effect those efforts had on the high school, he can determine what else may need to be done or if more money should be added to the budget for this in the future.

"I do think that the School Committee as a whole is cognizant that we could use more diversified faculty at the high school," said Kennedy, who as mayor chairs the school board. "I think there should be a continuing effort. I'm interested to see how we did with the efforts so far this year and what kind of progress we've made."

For the 2016-2017 school year, the Lowell School District hired 86 teachers and 36 paraprofessionals. Of the 86 teachers, 71 identified as white, four identified as black, four identified as Latino and three identified as Asian. Four hires did not identify their race.

Superintendent of Schools Salah Khelfaoui did not respond to requests for comment.

Sheehy said the district is doing better in recruiting more diverse paraprofessionals. Of the 36 paraprofessionals hired, 20 identified as white, 11 as Asian, three as Latino and two as black.

The 2016-2017 Preliminary Workforce Report did not include a racial breakdown of administrators because of movement going on in those ranks, according to Sheehy.

The report on the district's diversity in staff and student programming will be presented at the next School Committee meeting. The last meeting revealed that women make up more than 75 percent of the district's staff members. Of the 1,103 teachers, 880 are women and of the 193 unionized administrators, 162 are women.

Although Martin recently announced he will be retiring as head of school in June, he said there is still a lot of work to do at LHS on building racial understanding and helping students feel more at home.

"The effort to understand their culture and to be supportive of each student, I think, is an important part of our school community," Martin said.

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